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Recently Terra in St. Helena switched from OpenTable to Urbanspoon to handle reserrvations. Photo by Hiro Sone/Terra

As a consumer, I’m a big OpenTablefan. I remember the days when I would have to make reservations on the phone, be put on hold for minutes at a time and actually have haughty reservationists laugh when I asked for a reservation. Remember those days?

Now I only have to deal with the computer, and if certain times or days aren’t available I only have to follow up with a few clicks to find another suitable time. It also seemed like a dream for a restaurant because diners could book whenever they want, and it would save the labor of having receptionists screen calls .

Not everything is peachy in that regard, however. While OpenTable is increasingly popular, some restaurants are rethinking the model. Others speculate that soon Google may get into the restaurant reservation game. Earlier this month, the Dept. of Justice allowed the company to proceed with the $700 million purchase of ITA Software, which is known mostly as a travel booking site.

Others are already in the game. Some places such as Delfina and Namu in San Francisco use Urbanspoon, while other new restaurants such as Tyler Florence’s El Paseo in Mill Valley are going the old-fashioned route. You want a table, call the restaurant.

Some have also been speaking out about the cost of subscribing to OpenTable, which is used by about 1,100 restaurants in the Bay Area and more than 20,000 world wide. In a blog post on Inside Scoop in October Incanto’s Mark Pastore wrote a piece about why they don’t use this reservation system, and just this week I got an email highlighting a minute-long cartoon video that claims a restaurant’s profits are only about 5 percent and that it costs a restaurant about $5 each time a table for two is booked on OpenTable.

Earlier this month Terra in St. Helena switched from OpenTable to Urbanspoon. I talked to co-owner Lissa Doumani about the reasons for the move.

Doumani said her monthly subscription cost for OpenTable was $278 (that pays for two stations, which she needed because she can’t use wireless in the building and the brains of the system were upstairs, and the entrance downstairs). Then there’s a $1 charge per diner booked, so a table for four will cost the restaurant $4. If a diner goes through the Terra website, the cost is 25 cents a person.

The restaurant spent $700 to $2,000 a month in reservation charges, depending on the season. Doumani also has a problem with how OpenTable handles private rooms. She said to get hers listed would cost an additional $100 a month.

She said Urbanspoon provides an iPad so she needs just one station for reservations. It now costs her a $149 a month flat fee, with no charge per reservation. However, there are some limitations: Reservations can only be booked a month out. When a reservation is canceled it cancels the slot so no one can book that time period unless Doumani goes in and reopens the slot. In addition, information about customers does not transfer from the reservation to the contact list, which is automatic with OpenTable.

I emailed Ann Shepherd, the vice president of marketing for OpenTable who pointed me to a company blog that explains the service, and the many qualities that help restaurants become more efficient and streamline their operation.

Shepherd said: “We recently released the 9th version of our ERB software, built over 12 years and based on experience serving thousands of restaurants. The new “Flex mode” feature of this release is helping restaurants improve seat utilization by intelligently combining tables. We also recently introduced a tablet offering for restaurants with an iPad version coming soon.”

In company surveys more than 90 percent of their customers reported being satisfied with OpenTable and consider it a value for the money, she said.

However Doumani said if she had her way she would go back to the old telephone reservation system, but customers like the ease of making reservation on line. However, she’s keeping her options open. “I’ve only made my decision to work with Urbanspoon for a year,” she said.